Skip to main content
Log in

Polarities and unitals in the Coulter–Matthews planes

  • Published:
Designs, Codes and Cryptography Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

For a class of finite shift planes introduced by Coulter and Matthews, we give a set of representatives for the isomorphism types, determine all automorphisms and describe all polarities explicitly. The planes in question are the only known examples of finite shift planes that are not translation planes. Each non-desarguesian Coulter–Matthews plane admits precisely two conjugacy classes of orthogonal polarities. In addition, each Coulter–Matthews plane of square order admits exactly one conjugacy class of unitary polarities. We prove that most of the corresponding unitals are not classical.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Baer R.: Polarities in finite projective planes. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 52, 77–93 (1946)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Barwick S., Ebert G.: Unitals in Projective Planes. Springer, New York (2008)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Betten D., Glynn D.G.: Über endliche planare Funktionen, ihre zugehörenden Schiebebenen, und ihre abgeleiteten Translationsebenen. Results Math. 42(1–2), 32–36 (2002)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Bruen A.A., Levinger B.W.: A theorem on permutations of a finite field. Can. J. Math. 25, 1060–1065 (1973)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Coulter R.S., Matthews R.W.: Planar functions and planes of Lenz-Barlotti class II. Des. Codes Cryptogr. 10(2), 167–184 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Coulter R.S., Matthews R.W.: Bent polynomials over finite fields. Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 56(3), 429–437 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Dembowski P., Ostrom T.G.: Planes of order n with collineation groups of order n 2. Math. Z. 103, 239–258 (1968)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Dembowski P., Piper F.: Quasiregular collineation groups of finite projective planes. Math. Z. 99, 53–75 (1967)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Dempwolff U., Röder M.: On finite projective planes defined by planar monomials. Innov. Incidence Geom. 4, 103–108 (2006)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. De Resmini M.J., Ghinelli D., Jungnickel D.: Arcs and ovals from abelian groups. Des. Codes Cryptogr. 26(1–3), 213–228 (2002)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Grundhöfer T.: Über Abbildungen mit eingeschränktem Differenzenprodukt auf einem endlichen K örper. Arch. Math. (Basel) 37(1), 59–62 (1981)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Hughes D.R., Piper F.C.: Projective Planes. Springer, New York, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 6 (1973).

  13. Jha V.: Review of “Coulter R.S., Matthews R.W.: Planar functions and planes of Lenz-Barlotti class II. Des. Codes Cryptogr. 10(2), 167–184 (1997)”. Mathematical Reviews, MR1432296 (97j:51010).

  14. Knarr N., Stroppel M.: Polarities of shift planes. Adv. Geom. To appear (doi:10.1515/ADVGEOM.2009.028).

  15. Knarr N., Stroppel M.: Classical unitals over semifields: configurations, automorphisms and the confluence graph. Manuscript, in preparation.

  16. McConnel R.: Pseudo-ordered polynomials over a finite field. Acta Arith. 8, 127–151 (1962/1963)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. O’Nan M.E.: Automorphisms of unitary block designs. J. Algebra 20, 495–511 (1972)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Stroppel M., Van Maldeghem H.: Automorphisms of unitals. Bull. Belg. Math. Soc. Simon Stevin 12(5), 895–908 (2005)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. Tits J.: Théorie des groupes. Résumé de cours et travaux, Ann. Collège France 97, 89–102 (1996/1997)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Stroppel.

Additional information

Communicated by J.D. Key.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Knarr, N., Stroppel, M. Polarities and unitals in the Coulter–Matthews planes. Des. Codes Cryptogr. 55, 9–18 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10623-009-9326-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10623-009-9326-7

Keywords

Mathematics Subject Classification (2000)

Navigation